Smells fishy... and it's not cat food!
Something smells fishy, and it's not cat food. Suddenly cats are "disappearing" from public gardens. We are informed by Dr Ronald D. Cuschieri (The Sunday Times, October 24) that some of the cats (what about the rest?) were taken by the Environmental...
Something smells fishy, and it's not cat food. Suddenly cats are "disappearing" from public gardens. We are informed by Dr Ronald D. Cuschieri (The Sunday Times, October 24) that some of the cats (what about the rest?) were taken by the Environmental Landscape Consortium (ELC) to Wied Incita, and that they are being taken good care of.
And a telephone call by an animal protection organisation to Dr Cuschieri resulted in him saying that they only removed the San Anton cats, and that the Barracca cats seem to have gone by the time the rehabilitation of the gardens was finished. Very convenient indeed, I must add, the cats leaving by themselves just after the kiosk person who used to feed them and sell cat food for people to feed the cats, was threatened with legal action.
However I must make clear the following points.
Before removing any cats from the public gardens in question, the government's Animal Welfare Council (AWC) should have been informed and consulted. Also, any decision taken regarding the cats in question should have been made by the AWC itself, and not by anyone else. It is therefore clear that there was a breach of procedure when dealing with the cats in the public gardens.
If a member of the AWC, the chairman, or the minister was consulted, then, any decision taken was an abuse of power, since all members of the AWC's committee should be informed and consulted before any action is taken in such cases involving animal welfare.
If, on the other hand, the order was given by the minister, without the AWC being informed and consulted, then the AWC might as well be completely disbanded, since it would only be serving a convenient public relations purpose without any true power of giving input and influencing government decisions on animal welfare.
Finally, if the decision was taken by the ELC without consulting the AWC or informing the government (which has the duty to consult the AWC), then the ELC is in breach of current animal welfare regulations.
We therefore ask for a government investigation which should be performed through the AWC. We also demand that the cats be returned and that any further collection of cats be stopped until the matter is resolved through the government's AWC.